David Ray Williams could make pretty much any vehicle dance, even a Suburban.
The hydraulics system he built made his midnight blue SUV go up and down and rock and roll in rhythm with a stereo system he attached behind the license plate.
Families of Victims of Homicide and Missing Persons- David Ray Williams and daughter Ashley
He called his prized Suburban “Rump Shaker,” which was inscribed on the side.
Rump Shaker brought him fame at numerous low rider competitions. It was featured once on the front page of Lowrider magazine.
The 35-year-old man checked product inventories at numerous stores in the Denver metro area.
But he was also a father of a 15-year-old daughter. His mother Anna B. Davis, who lives in Atlanta, Ga., was proud of how he doted over his daughter.
“They were always together,” Davis said. “He took her to all the low rider competitions.”
Williams loved to play basketball and had a collection of Air Jordan shoes that stacked up to the ceiling in his apartment.
He tinkered with motorcycles.
On May 4, 2005, Williams was talking to his girlfriend on his cellular phone when he drove up to the parking lot of his apartment on the 1900 block of Delmar Parkway. He had stopped at McDonalds and was carrying his dinner into his house while continuing to talk to his girlfriend, Davis said.
The girlfriend later told police he heard him get out of his car. As soon as he turned a corner to go to his apartment door someone jumped out of bushes.
His girlfriend heard two pops and then she could tell the phone dropped to the ground.
Williams was shot twice in the “upper torso,” Davis said.
“They just shot him and left him there,” she said. “They didn’t take his jewelry or money from his pocket. It was just a senseless death.”
Davis was hysterical when she heard the news. She said she couldn’t believe her son was dead.
Police found DNA at the shooting scene they believe was tied to the killer. In the past six years the DNA has not been linked to anyone arrested for other crimes.
Davis has called every year to check with the Aurora homicide detective in charge of her son’s case.
This year she flew to Colorado to attend the 10th Annual Conference of Families of Victims of Homicide and Missing Persons.
Howard Morton, president of the group, said the organization helped pay for Davis to fly to the event at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs on Oct. 8.
There she met with detectives investigating her son’s case and attended seminars on how criminal investigations work.
This year, the keynote speaker was Renny Cushing, executive director of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, an international organization based in Cambridge, Ma.
Cushing, a member of the New Hampshire Legislature, whose father was murdered in his home in 1988, wrote a bill that created a state-level cold case squad that investigates cold cases.
He also shepherded a bill through the legislature making families of homicide victims eligible for compensation as long as their family’s case was unsolved.
Morton said his group would like to duplicate Cushing’s initiatives in Colorado.
Davis said its still very painful.
“I’m still hoping and praying that something will come up on the DNA,” she said.
Contact information: The Aurora Police Department can be reached at 303-739-6151. Denver Post reporter Kirk Mitchell at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com